Bloomberg anti-gun group ups staff

The Mike Bloomberg-founded Mayors Against Illegal Guns is expanding its staff in a number of states, bringing on field organizers and press secretaries to press members of Congress in advance of voting on gun control legislation, officials confirmed.

Emails have circulated in the past two weeks searching for press operatives and other staffers to work on a three-to-six-month project for MAIG. The email says the teams will be deployed in states.

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MAIG officials declined to identify which states are involved, but the group released a poll of 21 states including Maine, Arizona and Louisiana showing voters overwhelmingly approve of background checks for all gun sales. The survey was conducted by Bloomberg’s longtime pollster, Doug Schoen. The group expects to be in at least some of those states, officials said.

The goal of the new hires is to apply pressure on federal lawmakers in advance of voting on new gun-control legislation.

“Ninety percent of Americans want background checks for every gun sale, we are helping to make sure their voices are heard,” said John Feinblatt, Bloomberg’s chief policy advisor who is also the point-person with MAIG.

The effort augments Bloomberg’s work in Washington on the issue. His aides have been meeting with White House staffers on the gun control issue in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre in Newtown, Conn.